I recently had the pleasure of viewing the Ken Burns series titled “Country Music” on NPR.

Not sure why I enjoyed it so much. I have always generally liked country music and have some of it in my personal electronic universe but I did not grow up in a home that celebrated music in any form. We had a record player and a few Christmas albums but that was it. I guess I am in the generation making the transition from radio to TV. My only clear memory of listening to radio was on Saturday nights when the audio version of “Gunsmoke” and “The Lone Ranger” were on. I didn’t listen to music on radio when I was younger and even today I usually tune to talk radio in the car. I was surprised when I found myself tearful during some of the episodes produced by Mr. Burns. Maybe that is a characteristic of country music. It connects with you at some basic level.

Co-incidentally, not much after this, my wife was burrowing through her boxes of papers and brought something to me for identification. It was a program from the Grand Old Opry at Ryman Auditorium on Saturday, June 20, 1964. That summer I was at advanced USAF ROTC summer camp at Sewart AFB in Smyrna, Tennessee near Nashville. On the date above we were all loaded on buses and taken to Nashville. We probably made an impressive sight marching into the auditorium in uniform and filing into the rows of seats.

My recollection of the auditorium was that it was like being in a church. The long rows of dark wood benches were pretty much identical to pews. There was no air conditioning but there were profuse personal hand fans available. The one I used had a reproduction of “The Last Supper” on one side and an advertisement for a funeral home on the other. I don’t have any memory of the music. I enjoyed the distaste expressed by some of my northern comrades with no personal ties to the musical genre.

Looking at the program now I note that the organization seemed to be in intervals associated with a specific sponsor. Some familiar Southern names such as “Luzianne” and “Martha White”, along with “Pet Milk” and others were 30 minutes long while after 10pm there four intervals of 15 minues and associated with names such as “Schick” and “Ford”, The evening concluded with 30 minute intervals of “Coca Cola” and “Lava Soap”. Some well known names are scattered throughout the evening. I guess if you were in more episodes you earned more. I note Porter Wagoner, Roy Acuff, Marty Robbins and June Carter among others.

Lots of claims on the back page by the Opry. Prices quoted make me feel old. Popcorn 10c, Coca Cola 10c and 20c, cushions $1. I assume you had to return the cushion.

Hope you enjoyed the series or plan to view it soon.